


I will break down the gates of heaven

by grasslandgirl



Category: Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: Campaign 03 Season 02: The Unsleeping City Chapter II, Episode: c03s02e17 The Unsleeping City: Two Sides of the Same Coin (part 1), F/M, Minor Violence, POV Sofia Lee, dale's BACK BABY, it made me lose my mind and also write this fic oops, shout out to lizznotliz on tumblr for their meta about the short rest, sofie and esther best friends and best future moms !!, sofiedale and rickyesther mean so much to me, the short rest on the bus scene.......
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-19 05:49:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29870097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grasslandgirl/pseuds/grasslandgirl
Summary: I did it, I did it, he’s back, he’s here, I did it;her thoughts swim in a feedback loop of incandescent disbelief.“We’re gonna be afamily,”Dale breathes, and it takes all of Sofie’s strength not to just pull him back in. they’re in a middle of afight,for fuck’s sake, but Sofie can barely manage to care about Tony and his bullshit machinations anymore. Dale ishere;how can anything in the world be bad ever again?
Relationships: Dale Lee/Sofia Lee, Ricky Matsui/Esther Sinclair
Comments: 8
Kudos: 37





	I will break down the gates of heaven

**Author's Note:**

> wahhhhhh i just have a lot of feelings about sofie finally getting dale back and then both of them getting thrown back into a fight! i have a lot of feelings about ricky and esther future parent!! i have a LOT of feelings about the dream team driving to the dragon's hoard subway station on kingston's bus together!!!!!  
> song title comes from Run To You by pentatonix which my dear friend jack recommended as a sofiedale song which made me lose my mind!!!

If you’d asked Sofie how she’d anticipated this fight ending up, she never could’ve told you it involved dragging her dead husband out of a memory book she’d written mere seconds before he got immolated (by that _bitch_ Isabella) in the past, through a weird umbra portal pulled by an umbilical cord attached to Pete. 

But if Sofie had learned anything three years ago, it was that no matter how weird New York City got on the waking side, the _Unsleeping_ City was weirder by spades. It just wasn’t worth trying to anticipate what insane shit was going to happen next. You just had to take the punches as they came- a rat man was talking to her, her husband was killed by a real succubi, she had to fight an anthropomorphic version of the American Dream, there was a seeping Nothing working through an evil company trying to destroy New York, her husband was _alive_ in her arms again- and if there was anything Sofia Lee was good at, it was taking punches. 

Dale’s hands- warm and solid in a way they hadn’t been for the last three years- were resting on her face, tracing the line of her cheek to her jaw, wiping away tears she hadn’t even realized were falling. He’s weeping, too, looking at her with such unadulterated awe and joy and love that Sofie doesn’t know how her heart is still in her chest for how hard it’s beating. 

_I did it, I did it, he’s back, he’s here, I did it;_ her thoughts swim in a feedback loop of incandescent disbelief. 

“We’re gonna be a _family,”_ Dale breathes, and it takes all of Sofie’s strength not to just pull him back in. they’re in a middle of a _fight,_ for fuck’s sake, but Sofie can barely manage to care about Tony and his bullshit machinations anymore. Dale is _here;_ how can anything in the world be bad ever again?

She tears her eyes off Dale’s face to glance over his shoulder at Tony, red faced and growling, eyes flicking between herself, Pete, and the other _(traitorous,_ her brain hisses in a voice that sounds suspiciously like La Gran Gata) monks. “Hey, good news,” she tells him, “you don’t have to be the First Fist anymore, because the First Fist is back!” Dale breathes an eager laugh beside her, turning to glance over his shoulder at Tony, too. “Dale, you can probably finish him off.”

“Honey,” Dale places a hand on her arm, stopping her from stepping away from him and Tony, “I know you’ve got this.” And there’s such wholehearted _belief-_ in her, in her strength and her ability- in his eyes it takes her breath away. Her husband turns back to Tony, saying, “Can I just say, I’d heard stories about you.” He glances at Sofie, a flash of protective concern in his eyes. “Hitting a pregnant woman? Even if you’re trying to end the world; you’re a disgusting man.” 

Sofie laughs- fuck, that’s her husband, hell yes- chiming in, “He’s scum, He’s absolutely scum. He’s brought out the worst in me.” Dale grins at her, proud and glowing, and pulls his hands off his arm to clap them together, the sound ringing out amongst the fighting and the ever-louder whirring of the Umbral Engine. Sofie feels the ring on her finger glow and warm on her finger as Dale winks, still grinning. The aura he summoned spreads out between them and Sofie feels her hands itch with magic. She smiles at him, incredulous. _Is this what it’s like to fight with your husband?_ Sofie wonders, _Fuck, we’ve all been missing out._ Dale inclines his head towards Tony and Sofie closes, slamming her fists into him, emboldened by not only La Gran Gata, but her fucking husband standing beside her. Tony crumples, bit by bit, bleeding under her fists. 

Sofia pushes past Tony, leaving him dazed and swaying in her wake, and throws up a shield to cover her flight. She feels La Gran Gata swirling over her shoulder for a moment as she does, a low protective purr humming in her ear. 

Across the battlefield, she sees Cody press his hand to Pete’s throat in a wash of flaming energy, and flick a different spell towards Ricky, wreathing him in a devil-red shield. Cody mutters something about _“two sides of the same coin,”_ as he casts his spells. 

Sofie glances back at Dale, who’s watching Cody with the same curious, discerning frown he wore whenever he was working through a particularly difficult account at work. “Dale,” She calls, abruptly realizing that her husband doesn’t really know any of these people beyond what she’s told him (and maybe Kingston, but that doesn’t count, Kingston knows everybody). “That’s a thing he says a lot. He’s a hard guy to grapple with, but he’s got a good heart.”

Dale glances at her and then back at Cody, amused. “Huh,” he says, “okay, yeah. He seems, um, he seems like he puts a lot of effort forward.” Cody looks up, eyes wide and darting between her and Dale, smiling nervously. 

“Yeah, yeah.” Sofie nods. “Which at first is like really confusing, because he puts effort into weird things sometimes, but he’s really sweet.”

Pete turns to one of the wizards on the stairs, lifting his arm as a swirl of phantasmagorical purple stretches out and whirls around her, and snaps her out of the plane. In the same instant, across the room, Esther pops into existence, weeping and shaking. Sofie grins as Esther meets her eye, staring wide eyed around the Umbral Engine room. 

“Kingston’s not the only one who can cast _Revivify,_ I guess!” She crows, pointing with her thumb over her shoulder at Dale. Esther’s gaze lands on Dale, astounded, for a moment, before latching onto Tony. 

_“What have you fucking done to my society,”_ Esther roars, tears streaming down her face, before turning to Ricky. Sofie’s heart squeezes at the concern and the worry on her friend’s face; she _knows_ how that feels, she knows what it’s like to be alone and scared and to just want someone who isn’t there, even if it’s due to no fault of their own. “Ricky-” 

“I saw the box of piss!” 

“What, box _of_ piss?” 

“The box covered in piss,” Ricky amends, shaking his head. “I- I understand-”

“It was disguised as an illusion!” Esther argues, “Ricky we’re gonna- what, wait, how did you know it was a pregnancy test?” 

“Um,” Ricky glances at Sofia, raising his eyebrows. “I just knew,” he says, turning back to Esther, “I just knew.”

Sofie purses her lips against a smile, swallowing back the laughter at the back of her throat. Despite everything, Esther being kidnapped and Tony still standing and the Umbral Engine inches from overloading, Sofie can’t help but bubble up with laughter and joy at all of it. Dale grins at her, confused, and she shakes her head silently- _I’ll explain later._ He shrugs in acquiescence. 

Tony grumbles, “Oh knock it off,” as Esther’s sobbing redoubles. 

“Ricky, I’m sorry, I wish you could have found out some other way.” Ricky grins at her, shaking his head. Esther turns, steel entering her spine as she straightens and turns towards Tony, staff gripped tightly in her hand. “Oh fuck, this is so fucked up,” she says, “you wouldn’t like me when I’m sad.” She lifts the staff- the staff she would’ve wielded as a Fury, Sofie knows- and is so thankful all of a sudden for her dear friend. How strong and determined she is, how open she’s become since Kugrash broke the curse.

Tony scoffs at Esther, and stomps towards Ox, slamming his foot down on the dog, crushing him into shattered pieces of light. 

“Okay, sorry, just walk me through this, Tony,” Sofie calls, because _fuck this dude, honestly._ “You hit a pregnant woman, now you go after a Dalmatian-”

“After you kidnap a pregnant woman, mind you,” Ricky adds, glaring at Tony with more anger and vehemence than Sofie had ever seen him. 

“I just wanna know,” Sofie continues, nodding in Ricky’s direction, “because I know you really believe in the righteousness of your cause; but like maybe sometimes you need to analyze some of the steps you use to get towards it.” 

“You’re a weird shit head!” Ricky calls and Sofie can’t help but laugh at that, because _yeah._ How fucked up do you have to be to get _Ricky “Mr. March” Matsui_ pissed at you?

“Laugh it up all you fucking want!” Tony bellows, “All of you were lying. You had a way to protect New York, you had a way to cut off the dream world, and none of you had what it fucking took to do it. I’m gonna send all of you straight to an early fucking grave; and this city is gonna be _safe.”_

The rest of the fight tears forward like all fights do: a series of moments strung together with raw adrenaline, only this time, for the _first_ time, Sofie has Dale at her side, fighting back to back. Ricky and Esther are their mirror across the battlefield, Ricky’s silver bat reflecting Esther’s shining silver magic in fractals around the room. Kingston is driving around on Cody’s moped, for some reason. Dale kisses her on the cheek as she runs past him to slam into Tony again, and even though Tony is spitting blood at her and she’s only got three hit points left, Sofie can’t stop smiling. 

She drags Tony back towards Dale as he wavers and sways in front of her, holding him up by the neck like he’s a drowned kitten. She pulls Dale in for a kiss, luxuriating in the fact that he’s _here._ The world tried to take her away from him and she dragged him back, kicking and screaming. Dale pulls back from her after a moment, and looks over at Tony, who’s watching them with a fading expression of anger and grief. 

“I didn’t know it either,” Dale says gently, his hands a warm weight on her cheek and on her waist. “But sometimes, Tony, it really _is_ what it _could_ be.”

Sofie laughs, bright and overjoyed, and flings Tony with all her strength into the Umbral Engine, watching as his limp form disappears. “Sorry!” Sofie quickly glances around at her friends, “Should I have shown him mercy?”

* * *

Kingston’s bus pulls up outside of Gramercy as soon as they gather outside, the Vox himself ushering them all aboard. They’re all tired but there’s something electric in the air as the bus tears across the city, unimpeded by any traffic. Sofie curls up almost entirely on Dale’s lap, his arms strong and unwavering around her as he holds her as close as she does him. She rests her head against her shoulder, beaming across the aisle to where Esther and Ricky are curled together almost the same way. 

La Gran Gata curls around her shoulders, purring proudly as Kingston passes around coffee and sandwiches and chips around the bus. Sofie watches on as Pete and Cody compete to see who can finish their sandwich first, Rowan cheering each of them on in turn. Kingston’s chatting with JJ at the front of the bus, golden glyphs floating almost unconsciously around his fingers as he gestures. 

“How did I not know you were pregnant, Sof?” Esther asks, taking a sip from her paper coffee cup carefully, so as not to disturb Ricky’s head in her lap. His legs are stretched across the aisle, feet propped up against Sofie’s legs on her bus seat. 

“I’m so sorry, Esther,” Sofie twists her wedding ring around her finger. “I found out when we were all in Nod a couple weeks ago, and everything’s been so crazy with the hoard and I’ve been spending all my time trying to find a way to bring Dale back-” she glances over her shoulder to catch Dale’s profile from where his head is tipped forward and leaned against her, face settled into a comfortable smile- “and you were so busy with Grammercy and trying to deal with the Monastery’s plans, I really thought I already told you.”

Esther shakes her head slightly, waving away Sofia’s apologies with her free hand- fingers flicking through the air. “I totally get it, life gets crazy.”

“Tell me about it!” Sofie laughs, feeling Dale’s body shake with quiet chuckles behind her. “But seriously, Esther, Ricky, I’m so happy for you guys.”

Ricky tips his head backwards to smile up at his girlfriend, eyes shining with the kind of happiness and pride that used to make jealousy bloom in Sofia’s stomach. The kind of easy domesticity and comfort between two people that always reminded her of Dale. Her husband squeezes her minutely tighter, like he can tell she’s thinking about him, thinking about the three years they lost each other. 

“You’re going to be great parents,” Dale agrees, and Esther’s lips purse into a nervous kind of smile. 

“I never really thought-” she glances at her staff of sorrow, piled in a bus seat with Ricky’s bat and Cody’s sword- “with my family and everything, I never really considered having kids. I didn’t even think it was an option, until Kugrash-”

Sofie sniffs a little, glancing up towards the bus roof on instinct, like if she looks hard enough in the right direction, she’ll see him. A little spectral rat man, all fluffy and smelling like shit, doing his rat baby dance around the whole universe. 

“Esther,” Ricky interrupts gently, reaching up to catch Esther’s hand in his own. “We’ve got this.”

“Yeah?” There’s a heartbreaking kind of hope and vulnerability in Esther’s expression. Sofie looks down at her hands to give them a moment of privacy, smiling when Dale grabs her hand and twines his fingers with hers; his thumb brushing gently over her ring.

Rowan storms up to the front of the bus, breaking the moment. She turns to face all of them, arms spread wide, and starts a long, Shakespearian-sounding speech. It’s one of the first times Sofie’s seen her really _perform_ as Rowan, and it’s really nice to see proof that her old friend- and Broadway hero- Misty lives on inside her. 

“God, that reminds me,” She mutters to Dale, craning her neck to press her face near his, “did I ever tell you about the time we fought during one of Misty Moore’s Broadway shows?” Dale shakes with incredulous laughter, pulling away from her slightly so he can raise his eyebrows at her in surprise. Sofie can’t help but smile smugly, “I’ll tell you later, it’s a hell of a story; Sondheim was riding around on a bear, and Ricky was naked-” Dale coughs in laughter, blushing bright red when Ricky shoots them a questioning look from across the aisle.

“Sounds like a great story, hun,” Dale whispers into her neck, hiding his face. Sofia smiles, wider than she has in years.

They all get edgy as they get closer to the hidden subway stop that holds the Dragon’s hoard. Cody swings his- _is that different than the one he had before?-_ sword carefully around at his side. Pete’s familiar flies around his finger tips. Rowan flutters around the bus, pressing kisses to everyone’s cheeks and foreheads- _a tradition from the theatre!_ she crows in explanation. Sofie casts _Pass Without Trace_ on everyone, smiling at La Gran Gata as she fades into the shadows with a feline wink. Dale places his hand on her shoulder and Sofie feels her ring warm up again, fists buzzing with extra energy from her husband’s spell. 

“Everyone should get married!” She announces, looking pointedly at Ricky, who nods at her, easily and cluelessly. Sofie catches Esther’s eye and rolls her eyes in exasperation, but Esther just grins ruefully, shaking her head. _I am gonna get that boy to propose if it kills me,_ Sofie thinks, glancing between Ricky and Esther. _I’m gonna be their fucking maid of honor._

She smiles a little to herself at the mental image, a whole future spread out beautifully before her- a future she’d almost given up on having. A kid with Dale’s smile and her hair, playing with Ricky and Esther’s beautiful child and the future dragon of New York in Central Park. Going for a girl’s night with Esther and Rowan and Iga and Em. Finding a new house with a huge backyard and plenty of guest rooms in Staten Island, hosting parties with all of her friends. Going to Kingston’s for the holidays, with a cluster of kids running around their feet. Going back to the monastery with Dale at her side, First Fist and Chosen One, making sure that no one like Tony ever threatens to destroy magic in New York again; using the strength of the monastery to ensure a magical future for her kid. 

Kingston comes up and pulls her into a warm hug, smiling at her as he pulls away. She feels his familiar golden Vox magic wash over her in a literal blessing from the city. “You ready for this, Sofia Lee?” Kingston asks as the bus pulls to an easy stop at Central Park North. 

The fight isn’t even close to over, but Sofie’s ready and raring to go. They’re the fucking _heroes of New York._ They’re the Chosen One, the Queen of Faerie, the First Fist of the Concrete Monastery, the head of the Gramercy Occult Society, and the Two Voxes of New York City. 

“Absolutely.”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading! you can find me also at [@grasslandgirl](https://grasslandgirl.tumblr.com/) on tumblr, and my inbox is always open for prompts!! comments and kudos always make my day, and i can't wait to actually lose my mind when the finale comes out next week <33


End file.
